MATT MOWERY: Tigers wait on Biogenesis suspensions

DETROIT — Like a race car, before it’s test driven, no Major League Baseball roster ever comes out of spring training complete.

It takes half a season for most managers and general managers to figure out which trouble spots need to be patched over with Bondo putty, and which gaping issues need a new part from the factory.

The Detroit Tigers are no different in that respect. They have a few holes identified over the first 96 games of the season, some of which can be take care of by internal solutions, and some of which are going to require making a deal at the deadline.

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Everyone knows the crying need for an additional arm or two in the bullpen, and it’s not hard to intuit that they’d like better offensive production from a few positions — like left field and catcher — than they’ve gotten.

But there’s one large variable that may keep the Tigers from pulling the trigger quite so quickly on filling those particular holes, one that they can neither control nor accurately plan for.

It’s how they’re going to be affected by the Biogenesis suspensions, when and if they come down.

Less than two weeks from the trading deadline, and the Tigers have no idea if they’re going to need a shortstop or not.

Granted, from all reports, Jhonny Peralta’s name was only peripherally linked to paperwork from the now-closed Miami-area anti-aging clinic run by Tony Bosch. You’d have to think that MLB has better, more iron-clad evidence than that, if they’re going to suspend anyone.

And there’s the added relief from last week’s revelations from both MLB commissioner Bud Selig and union head Michael Weiner that it was unlikely that any suspension handed down would be served this year, if appealed.

That’s a mighty big “if” to hang your hat on, should you be someone like Tigers president and general manager Dave Dombrowski, who’s tasked with one goal: winning a World Series.

Does he trust that to be true, and hope that Peralta is able to play out his existing contract and then see what happens?

Does he play it safe, and go with a back-up plan, even if he does not yet know whether or not Peralta will be suspended? As we’ve said all along, if Dombrowski has to use trade chips to bring in a shortstop — rather than going with in-house solutions like veteran Ramon Santiago, or minor leaguers Hernan Perez, Argenis Diaz or Danny Worth — that’s cutting into the resources available to fix what problems already exist.

If this were last year, when Peralta reached his high-water mark of .271 right around the 96-game mark, and would hit .192 the rest of the way, hitting into almost as many double plays (10) as doubles (11), and you might risk it.

But it’s not last year.

This year, Peralta came into Saturday’s game leading all American League shortstops with a .301 batting average, and is tied for first with 25 doubles. He’s second among AL shortstops with 40 runs scored, 46 RBI, and an on-base percentage of .359, and third with a slugging percentage of .434.

He’s a large part of the reason that the offense hasn’t dropped off precipitously after the cleanup spot in the order, like it did so often last year, and a large part of the reason that the Tigers came into Saturday first in baseball in team batting average (.279) and second in runs scored (477).

He’s too important a piece to just assume the slack can be picked up by backups or unproven prospects.

(And, no, for the record, Nick Castellanos can NOT play shortstop.)

It leaves the Tigers in a ticklish situation.

Do they just ignore it and hope that Selig and Weiner were correct in saying that it was unlikely that a suspension would be served this season, if the player appealed?

How can they?

It would certainly serve the best interests of the Tigers, should Peralta appeal any potential suspension.

It would not serve the best interests of Jhonny Peralta, however.

A free agent at the end of the season is not going to want to defer any possible suspension out past his free agency date, knowing that no one is going to sign him with that hanging over their heads.

While it’s possible that Peralta could take that hit for the team, it’s just as possible that he would choose not to.

And how can the Tigers know that, as of right now?

Peralta, for his part, has remained mum throughout the process, leaning on the statement issued through his lawyer in February, saying that he’d never taken performance enhancing drugs — “and anyone who says otherwise is lying.”

It’s doubtful that he’s discussed any potential culpability with his employers, either, doubtful that he turned to them and said, ‘Yeah, I did it.’

All that means is that the Tigers are just as much in the dark as are the rest of us.

Having said that, you know it’s a possibility that’s been discussed.

It has to have been, even if manager Jim Leyland’s stance is: “That’s not for managers to discuss, in my opinion. I’m not going to discuss that. That’s a lot higher up than me. ... I don’t have any comment on that stuff.”

Rangers manager Ron Washington, who is dealing with a similar ‘what-if’ scenario with right fielder Nelson Cruz, another player whose name has been linked to the investigation, said before the All-Star break that his team had a plan in place should Cruz be suspended.

You know the Tigers are not any less prepared. Just less vocal about it.

Given all the variables involved — timing of the suspensions, as well as length, whether or not it is appealed — it must be a lengthy plan.

The question that remains is whether or not that plan supersedes all of the Tigers’ existing plans to tweak the engine of the team as it exists now.

Ten days until we find out that answer.

Matthew B. Mowery covers the Tigers for Digital First Media. Read his “Out of Left Field” blog at opoutofleftfield.blogspot.com.